Cristiano Ronaldo’s incredible footballing journey started at Sporting Lisbon, and now the Portuguese club’s President Bruno de Carvalho has stated his desire to get the Real Madrid superstar to retire at Sporting Lisbon.
Real Madrid face Sporting Lisbon in their Champions League opener and when Bruno de Carvalho was asked if he wanted Ronaldo to return, he told Marca:
"Yes, without a doubt, I would love for Ronaldo to end his career here, at home.
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"He represents a lot for us and it would be beautiful if he could end his career here. He is a world ambassador. He always speaks well about us and how fond he is of us."
However, Ronaldo himself has stated his desire to end his career at Real Madrid, but the Sporting president remained hopeful about re-signing the Portuguese superstar:
"We are making a great effort for certain players to return to the club," he said. "We already did that with Nani [who spent the 2014-15 campaign on loan at Sporting] and we will see that many times.
"He will play a great game against us and we will, of course, have to try to limit him.
"It's going to be special to come up against him just as it's going to be special for him, as was seen in Ronaldo's face when he found out in the draw that he would face us," De Carvalho said.
"We are playing against our boy and he is playing against the team where he formed himself as a player. It's going to be beautiful."
De Carvalho also recalled the time when Cristiano Ronaldo had his first breakthrough in August 2003. He also regretted selling him too early:
"I was watching the game against United here and we all had a very clear feeling that following his performance against United that it would be very difficult for them [United] not to sign him," he said.
"He had phenomenal talent. As a fan, I hoped that Sporting would find a way to keep him and now as a president, I believe it was a bad business deal, from a sporting and financial aspect, to sell him as early as we did.
"I thought he was too young to leave."
Ronaldo himself said he was looking forward to playing against his old team, Speaking to UEFA, he said:
"It's a special match, it's a special team. I wanted to draw Sporting again, because I think they have a good team, they have a good coach, and it will be another special moment in my life."
